As Luck Would Have It

It was a sunny Thursday.

I was working just north of Oakville when I got the call.

My Mother was being rushed to a Trauma Center in a nearby city. An aneurysm in her abdomen had burst. At least a 9.7 on the scale of the worst phone call you could get.

As luck would have it, I was only five minutes from my car.

Ma was born into a farm family, in the middle of the 1930's. As one of twelve children, they all had to take care of something on the farm. When Grandpa went into the Army, everyone had more to take care of. As luck would have have it, the family farm was near Camp 20 in Brantford where Grandpa served as an M.P. The eldest children took care of the farm, the younger ones took care of the even younger ones.

As luck would have it, Ma was near the middle of the pack and took care of her younger siblings.

In those days, it was quite normal for women to marry in their teens and start families of their own. As luck would have it, Ma had children of her own to look after by the time she was in her late teens.

That was her job, to look after people. As luck would have it, she was pretty good at it.

She was a stay at home mom before that was an option. I'm the youngest of the gang, and she never worked outside the home until I was in school. Even then, she made sure that there was a lunch ready for me when she couldn't be there.

As luck would have it, somewhere near that time, a friend who's husband was terminally ill needed help. They had no children to look after them, so Ma did. That's what she did. She held her friends hand while her husband died. Many years later she held her friends hand while she died. That's what she did.

Ma was not without health issues over the years. In the 1970's, she underwent a series of surgeries. One of the few things Pa never did master was cooking. In an emergency he could fry plain hamburger and some potatoes, or pork chops and french fries. So Ma made a series of meals, labeled them and put them in the freezer for emergencies. Even when she was sick, she took care of us. That's what she did.

As we got older and had children of our own, Ma wouldn't hear of daycare for her grandchildren. Or her great-grandchildren. She would take care of them, that's what she did. As luck would have it, we kept her well supplied with people to take care of.

A few years ago, as Pa's health started to fail, there was talk of putting him into some kind of extended care. Ma would have none of that. She would take care of him as long as she could.

That's what she did.

That's what she was doing on that sunny Thursday when she collapsed on the living room floor. She managed to get out a phone call for help. As luck would have it, my Sister was nearby and got there in time.

As luck would have it, an ambulance was literally around the corner and able to respond. As she was being wheeled out she asked for someone to call for help for Pa. She had to make sure he was taken care of.

That's what she did.

As luck would have it, my nephew worked nearby and could stay with Pa until the nurse got there.

As luck would have it, I beat the ambulance to the Trauma Center. I commented to her that there were other ways out of the family picnic slated for that weekend. She laughed. A good sign.

As luck would have it, the on-call Vascular Surgeon is the Professor for such things at McMaster Medical School. The surgery went well and quicker than expected. She had lost a lot of blood, and her kidneys, liver and pancreas had been blood starved for some time.

As luck would have it, the whole family was in the area for the picnic. A rare occasion as my one Sister lives in California and my one Brother travels a lot for business.

As luck would have it, her mind was damaged by lack of blood flow and her kidneys didn't respond to treatment. She never regained consciousness and never knew what was going on around her. She hung on long enough for everyone to say goodbye. Even as she was leaving us she was making sure we weren't inconvenienced.

She was taking care of us. That's what she did.

She slipped away peacefully.

It was a rainy Saturday.

As luck would have it.

DJ and his Family thank everyone for thier support.
We have a lot of great people around us, as luck would have it.